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40-50 degree temperature plunge from today to Sunday, NWS says

After some debate earlier this week, the verdict is in on the cold snap due to begin on Saturday: Much colder temperatures are on the way for South Florida. Palm Beach residents will wake up to 42 degrees on Sunday morning, the National Weather Service in Miami says — and it will sink into the 30s in Wellington.

It’ll feel particularly cold after the steamy high temperatures of Wednesday, which were expected to set records in some South Florida locations. From Wednesday afternoon to Sunday morning, the temperature drop will range from 40 to 50 degrees.

And in between those two extremes, the Palm Beach area could experience its first heavy rainfall event since October.

The NWS’ Hydrometeorological Prediction Center bumped up its rainfall forecast for Palm Beach through Saturday, although most of the rain should fall Thursday night and Friday. The latest forecast called for 2.3 inches of rain in the area as the first of two cold fronts moves down the peninsula Thursday and stalls out. A series of storms will move along the front, forecasters said.

The South Florida Water Management District is predicting a much more moderate three quarters of an inch. AccuWeather is splitting the difference and calling for about an inch and a half.

The second and much stronger cold front arrives Saturday and will produce two cold mornings, Sunday and Monday. A warming trend begins on Monday, with temperatures back up to the high 70s by Tuesday.

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When you think of precious resources in the Middle East, you naturally think of oil. But a new NASA study represents a wakeup call for the region in terms of another scarce commodity: water.

The results of the study, to be published Friday in the journal Water Resources Research show vast areas of the Middle East have lost freshwater reserves rapidly over the past 10 years.

From 2003 to 2010, areas along the Tigris and Euphrates river basins — encompassing Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Iran — lost 117 million acre feet of water reserves during that time due to pumping water from underground reservoirs.

It’s the second largest rate of groundwater loss behind India, according to researcher Jay Famiglietti, a hydrologist and professor at the University of California at Irvine. “Meanwhile, demand for freshwater continues to rise, and the region does not coordinate its water management because of different interpretations of international laws,” he said.

He added: “The Middle East just does not have that much water to begin with, and it’s a part of the world that will be experiencing less rainfall with climate change. Those dry areas are getting dryer. The Middle East and the world’s other arid regions need to manage available water resources as best they can.”